1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication, and more precisely, to a system and a method for providing a communication link between a central station and a remote mobile or stationary object utilizing transmitting and receiving communication means for speech and data transmission. The invention also relates to a method for utilizing such a system.
2. Background
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,061 discloses an emergency message system for a mobile vehicle for communication with a response center. A cellular transceiver has a restricted and an unrestricted operation mode. The restricted operating mode is selectable by a user to establish communication links that are permitted during normal operation, whereas the unrestricted operation mode is activated prior to initiating a request for assistance in case of emergency, thereby allowing a more reliable connection over a cellular telephone network.
Further, emergency message systems for mobile vehicles are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,101, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,215, U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,910 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,204. A user can request emergency or roadside assistance from a response service center by activating a button in the vehicle. The global positioning system is used to continuously store the vehicle's location. A cellular telephone network is used to contact the service center and to transfer, via modem, a data string containing information to assist the service center in acting on the request. The various systems comprise (include, but are not limited to) additional means either for storing system information, for sending a termination tone to the vehicle upon satisfactory completion of the request, for initiating an automatic call-in to the service center if a predetermined time has elapsed since the last connection and for initiating a second call to a different number if a first attempt to contact the response center has been unsuccessful.
These prior art systems are not very well suited to environments and situations where a vehicle travels across a border from one country to another. Usually, this involves the transfer of responsibility from one service center operator to another. A large amount of functionality is needed for-this transfer to function smoothly, without risk of interrupting service.
For example, a customer database will have to be maintained and updated at every customer service station. It is also a problem for a large number of customer service station operators to allocate resources for upgrading and scaling-up the telematic infra-structure in response to a growing number of service clients. Additionally, it will be difficult to add or remove services to this environment where different service operators may have different types of system platforms with completely different interfaces to service clients.
It would be desirable for a service client to have access to the same level of service via a transparent interface when traveling across a continent, for example Europe.